How To: Guide on the Merchant Alliance Voyages (It's not broken/doesn't need fixed)

@weedstar-deluxe said in How To: Guide on the Merchant Alliance Voyages (It's not broken/doesn't need fixed):

... but we dont know how much will higher voyages costs, or anyway the costs will maybe completly different like in the beta.

Yeah that's a good point to make and I hope at the higher/highest levels this becomes kind of obsolete.

At levels 0-4 it's 0 gold to buy a Merchant Alliance voyage.
Level 5-9 it's 20 gold.
Level 10-14 it's 40 gold.
Level 15-19 it's 60 gold.

I'm assuming if it keeps the same pace it's going to be...
20-24 = 80
25-29 = 100
30-34 = 120
35-39 = 140
40-44 = 160
45-50 = 180

Well at 180 gold per voyage that's still only 540 gold to buy three and if golden chickens and that are selling for 1,000+ gold it's still viable exploit. Albeit less beneficial than sticking with level 0-4 Sailor voyages.

I was hoping they raised the amount it cost to buy a voyage from what it was in the beta because I think later on it should cost you like 1,000 gold per voyage. Meaning if the sell amount stay the same it becomes pointless to do that. Selling a gold chicken for 1000+ gold but buying three voyages to stack up the coops costs 3,000+ means it's just not worth it.

Who knows what it'll be like but good point.

I don't know if it was server issues (glitch) but I think they might have semi-fixed this exploit.

You can certainly cancel and grab extra cages but eventually if you do it so much they stop selling you voyages and tell your full (when you don't have 3). BUT i was also experiencing issues with not being able to place any voyages on the table. Anyone else do some experimenting and have these issues yet?

found this thread from googling if the merchant alliance was broken or bugged, because the way it is simply cant be right.

am i right in thinking you can only run one merchants voyage per docking at a port? with hoarders and souls i take 3 at a time, run through all three, then return to sell and pick up more. merchants you have to return to port for every single voyage which makes it an incredible time sink compared to the others. heres how im having to run things, if a is your starting port, b is the target island and c is returning to sell loot:

hoarders: a - b - b - b - c = 5 steps
souls: a - b - b - b - c = 5 steps
merchants: a - b - c - a - b - c - a - b - c = 9 steps

something is off, and using exploits and work arounds to game the system isnt a fix. you cant even tag 1 merchant alongside two hoarders or souls because it still requires you to dock for that one voyage, either first or last.

so right now, im simply not doing them. and i quite liked the idea of being the merchant ingame.

@phrank-t-phish said in How To: Guide on the Merchant Alliance Voyages (It's not broken/doesn't need fixed):

am i right in thinking you can only run one merchants voyage per docking at a port?

Yes.

with hoarders and souls i take 3 at a time, run through all three, then return to sell and pick up more. merchants you have to return to port for every single voyage which makes it an incredible time sink compared to the others.

Then you're doing it wrong.

I first want to point out not all factions (Trading Companies) voyages are suppose to work exactly the same. The whole A B B B C thing... I don't know where people got this assumption but maybe it's by design they developed them that way.

You don't have to return to port/outpost every single time. Think of it as a delivery. You start out at a port/outpost. You buy your cages by doing the vote in vote out workaround, spend a little gold and amass a bunch of extra cages. Eventually you stop and you start a voyage that you like what it's requesting. Now you go to an island and you start filling your cages. ALL OF THEM. Trying to get a good array of different colors of each animals. (Maybe choose to skip pigs until they are requested or just keep on hand the gold ones because there's a cost to keeping them --bananas -- and it can be challenging to babysit them having to feed them all the time less they die on you.)

The point is, you fill your order but you also fill your boat with extras so when you go to the port/outpost to turn in then you can sift through the next voyages. Vote in see what it's asking for and if you don't already have it on board simply vote out and vote another in until you do. This way you don't have to go looking for them you just sail to the outpost and turn it in. Sometimes if you got enough extras you can do this little chaining over and over again before you gotta go resupply your ark with 2 of everything.

heres how im having to run things, if a is your starting port, b is the target island and c is returning to sell loot:

hoarders: a - b - b - b - c = 5 steps
souls: a - b - b - b - c = 5 steps
merchants: a - b - c - a - b - c - a - b - c = 9 steps

If you're doing it right it should look like;

a - b - c - c - c - c - b - c - c - c - b - c - c - c - b

you cant even take 1 merchant alongside two hoarders or souls [voyages] because it still requires you to dock for that one voyage, either first or last.

I think they deliberately designed them this way maybe as a way to get players to visit Outposts more often for chance at player run ins. Just what I think though. They've never said this is the reasoning.

@l2l-havok-l2l said in How To: Guide on the Merchant Alliance Voyages (It's not broken/doesn't need fixed):
I think the main complaint everyone got is that you gotta get the cages after voting for the voyage

I think if they made it any other way it would have to change the whole voyage system. Like I'm assuming you want what the majority has been asking for... be able to grab as many cages as you want by type from the vendor at will (whether you pay gold or not) so you can just go there grab X amount of cages, coops, and baskets and potentially crates then go vote for a voyage and begin it.

I don't really see the issue because you're voting for the voyage, you still gotta bring each cage back to ship one at a time so if your doing it one by one why cant you simply vote to cancel when you bring one cage back to the ship, start another and go get the new cages one by one. It's really no different.

Your paying for the voyages you cancel out but the cost is likely what it would cost you to grab/buy cages freely from them. Something like 20g a cage. Well when you buy a Voyage for 100g+ (at level 25) that gives you 2 pig cages, 2 coops, and snake basket that is 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 gold after you add it up.

Basically, "here's how to game the system in a way it wasn't intended to make decent money and rank it up. It's fine."

@cipher-8 i know thats the way your doing them, and yes its a workaround the odd system they have setup now, but thats my issue is it being a workaround a seemingly broken system, its not the way the game was intended, which is why we are calling it broken.

i like that there is a bit of variety and different types of missions, i would prefer the hoarders and souls to be a bit more different as despite one needing a shovel and the other a weapon they are basically the same thing. but merchants are detrimentally different to the point of not being worth it. you already have to take longer by not being given a specific island, then having to search around the the specific type of animal, before also having to return to port after every mission as well.

if the job ended once i have all the animals on my ship then i could understand it, then i can take a second job, and a third, then head back and sell my 6 chickens or pigs, but having to go back to sell two at a time is a ballache. if you had to return to port to turn in your 1 chest for each gold hoarders voyage, or 1 skull for every souls fight, then that would be a pain in the a*s too. thats the part i feel is broken.

I tried doing this and noticed an issue. Im almost wondering if a silent patch went out? I could only cancel a total of 3 voyages. After that, no other new voyages showed up in the merchant shop to buy. Tried going to a different outpost and had the same results. Only way i could get new voyages was to exit game and re-join. Again, could only cancel a total of 3 voyages. Anyone have this problem?

@xgodkevin They made it so you have to wait an amount of time, i think they let you buy like 6 at once then gotta wait but by the time you sail to another outpost usually i can buy another 6. It does hamper the amount of cages you can carry (which is a good fix so players didnt overdue it with the Noah Ark'ing) but you can still bring plenty of extras and hoard gold/black chickens/snakes to turn in.

Also don't forget the Forts and explosive barrels.

Cancel voyages until they ask for Golden / Black / Barrels and i usually only turn in the Gold/Black Chickens/Snakes and then cancel voyages and vote in another.

@cipher-8 said in How To: Guide on the Merchant Alliance Voyages (It's not broken/doesn't need fixed):

A potential idea to make the voyages more engaging instead of how it works now is to get the items ahead of time from the Merchant Alliance, instead of having the ability of selling the animals/explosive barrels, and deliver it to somewhere else. In other words, you get the items from the shopkeeper instead of the coops, load them up on the ship, and deliver it to a different outpost. Just an idea on that.

I think that's more similar to how Gold Hoarders voyages sometimes give you X marks the spot maps of an island and other times give you a named island riddle. They have two quest types and the Merchant Alliance should give you two quest types as well.

The Merchant Alliance delivery quests should be like this specific Outpost needs a delivery by this date at this time, hurry! Then you load the merchandise on your ship and gotta keep it protected from thieving pirates along the journey sailing there.

Then the other type of Merchant Alliance voyages is the ones we have now, the normal ones that are more about exploring the world and collecting wild animals. (And yes they should revamp it and add Fishing!). These ones they give you a request paper and enough empty cages (or if they added fishing they give you the nets you need to catch the fish with) and task you to go out and find them searching the various islands then deliver them.

(I guess for these ones it would maybe make sense to let you turn them in at ANY OUTPOST to complete them. But only any Outpost if they added in the other quest type that uses a specific delivery Outpost.)

@cipher-8 said in How To: Guide on the Merchant Alliance Voyages (It's not broken/doesn't need fixed):

Having two forms of quests for this Trading Company would be ideal way of improving them.

Just like they have two forms of quests for the Gold Hoarders.

Adding in a delivery type of quest to the Merchant Alliance where you take these goods and cargo supplies given to you from the NPC at the Outpost A to a specific Outpost B. A delivery more than a scavenger hunt for wild animals.

*Cargo Runs are designed to introduce a bit more variety to the Merchant Alliance, expanding on the faction's existing animal transportation missions with a selection of delivery quests themed around some particularly finicky items.

Accept a Cargo Run via an outpost's Merchant Alliance representative and you'll be asked to collect a number of crates from another NPC on the island. Once gathered, the quest is removed from your list but remains active, meaning that you can stack up multiple Cargo Runs, or do them in tandem with other quests - something that players have long hoped would be implemented for the original Merchant Alliance animal runs.*

-- source

Really RARE... It's been 7 months and this is what your just now adding? It could've been literally added a month after launch.

Don't matter I stopped playing SoT months ago. Didn't feel the grind was worth it as there was literally no end game and was just doing the same things over and over.